Caprock Group LLC Takes Position in Western Digital Corporation $WDC

Caprock Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ:WDC) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 21,770 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,614,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of WDC. Pure Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in Western Digital by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Pure Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,583 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $430,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares during the period. Bogart Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Western Digital by 57.7% during the third quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC now owns 309 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares during the period. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC raised its stake in shares of Western Digital by 3.0% during the third quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 3,871 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $465,000 after purchasing an additional 114 shares in the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Western Digital by 124.5% in the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 211 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the period. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB grew its position in Western Digital by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 2,993 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $359,000 after buying an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. 92.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on WDC. Truist Financial set a $310.00 price target on shares of Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Western Digital from $94.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Argus set a $300.00 target price on Western Digital in a research report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Robert W. Baird set a $310.00 price target on Western Digital in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Western Digital from $260.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $265.58.

Insider Transactions at Western Digital

In other news, Director Roxanne Oulman sold 1,800 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.42, for a total value of $277,956.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 3,863 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $596,524.46. This represents a 31.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Irving Tan sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.44, for a total transaction of $5,108,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 623,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $159,288,807.84. This represents a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 70,522 shares of company stock worth $17,661,708. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Western Digital Stock Performance

Western Digital stock opened at $284.10 on Friday. Western Digital Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $28.83 and a fifty-two week high of $307.50. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $214.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $149.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The company has a market cap of $96.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.80.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The data storage provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.20. Western Digital had a net margin of 35.52% and a return on equity of 41.53%. The firm had revenue of $3.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.93 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.77 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 25.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Western Digital Corporation will post 4.89 EPS for the current year.

Western Digital Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th will be given a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 5th. Western Digital’s payout ratio is presently 5.02%.

Western Digital Company Profile

Western Digital Corporation is a global data storage company that designs, manufactures and sells a broad range of storage devices and systems for personal, enterprise and cloud applications. Headquartered in San Jose, California, the company develops hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), NAND flash components and finished storage products used in PCs, external storage, servers, network-attached storage (NAS) and embedded systems.

Its product portfolio spans consumer and commercial markets, including internal and external HDDs and SSDs, removable flash memory products and storage platforms for data center and enterprise environments.